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Roman writing on the Wall: recording inscriptions at a Hadrian’s Wall quarry
In the depths of a Cumbrian wood, intrepid archaeologists have been abseiling down the wall of a Roman quarry to document eroding inscriptions left by 3rd-century soldiers tasked with harvesting the sandstone to help repair Hadrian’s Wall. Carly Hilts visited the site and spoke to Jon Allison and Mike Collins to find out more.
Standing on the bank of the River Gelt, surrounded on all sides by dense trees and the sound of birdsong and rushing water, it is all too easy to forget the modern world. But while today the patch of Cumbrian woodland that we had come to visit feels evocatively isolated, 1,800 years ago the rust-red rockface before us would have been a hive of activity, bustling with workmen and ringing with the rhythmic sound of their picks, hammers, and chisels.
This once-busy quarry is located just 5.5km from Hadrian’s Wall, near the small market town of Brampton. The river-cut sandstone gorge in which it lies was a vital source of stone to help fortify the Roman frontier, and this site was just one
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